RELIGION IN LIFE EDITORIAL BOARD JOHN BAILLIE A CHRISTIAN QUARTERLY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF NOLAN B. HARMON ROBBINS WOLCOTT BARSTOW SAMUEL McCREA CAVERT EDITORIAL OFFICES GERALD R. CRAGG 150 FIFTH AVENUE CLARENCE T. CRAIG New YORK 11, N. Y. LYNN HAROLD HOUGH JOHN KNOX KENNETH SCOTT LATOURETTE G. ASHTON OLDHAM PAUL E. SCHERER Mar. 16, 1955 Mr. Ludwig von Mises 777 W. End Avenue New York City Dear Mr. Mises: We do not know whether you are acquainted with RELIGION IN LIFE. It is an interdenominational Protestant Quarterly, read mostly by ministers and theological professors and students in this and to some extent in other lands. I am writing you now because your name has been given to us as one who could write the sort of article we need at present. Our situation is this. We have received and accepted an article entitled "The Ethical Implications of Land Reform, " by Shirley Greene, a minister who is now working with the National Farmers Union. Our feeling was that his article is worth publish- ing; but we also believe that we should publish along with it a companion piece written from a different standpoint. Mr. Greene has written about the need of land reform both in other lands and in this country, with a "New Deal" or mildly socialistic approach. He is of course anti-Communist, and points out that so-called land reform in Communist countries turns out to be deceptive. But he passes very lightly over the ethical prob- lem of confiscation of large holdings for distribution to the land- less, apparently believing that in some regions that would be the only solution. What we would like is an article by a qualified writer who would treat land reform ably from a standpoint that fully respects the claims of private property. How can the present inequities of ownership be remedied, and what would be the truly Christian--or best ethical-approach to the problem? The article should be writ- ten in a broad and balanced way, keeping in mind a rather scholarly audience.